A PATIENT with a fractured skull claims he was sent home from hospital after doctors had failed to spot his head injury.

Sanjit Biswas, 43, suffered the fracture after falling downstairs at his Middlesbrough home.

Mr Biswas, of Aire Street, said: “I was just coming downstairs and I tripped and banged my head. I was just in a daze. I didn’t feel too well, I started feeling sick.”

An ambulance was called and he was taken to A&E at James Cook University Hospital on March 24.

Mr Biswas said: “I think I took a fit or something in the ambulance. They kept me in overnight for observations.”

He said he was told there wasn’t any injury and was discharged home.

But the unemployed welding engineer said he started feeling ill again.

“I was vomiting, I had double vision. I had a massive pain in my head. I thought there was something wrong.”

Mr Biswas said he went back to the hospital, and he claims doctors again tried to send him home.

But friends who were with him insisted they perform further investigation. Mr Biswas said the doctors then agreed to send him for a scan.

And this revealed a blood clot “bigger than a plum” in addition to a fractured skull.

Mr Biswas said he had to have an operation carried out by a neurosurgeon at James Cook.

“He saved my life. He said I was the luckiest man alive. He said if I had left it any longer I wouldn’t be here.”

Mr Biswas said he was left with problems including difficulty walking, poor concentration and memory loss. He said: “I am half the man I used to be.”

Hesays he is now planning to go to India to see doctors about his injuries.

“I want to go to India to see some medical experts. I want to see the best people in the world,” he said.

His case was investigated by Middlesbrough-based medical claims specialists Armstrong Foulkes. Solicitor Joanne Dennison said: “Independent medical experts have confirmed that the X-rays showed a fracture to the skull and that it was negligent to fail to diagnose this and discharge him home that day.

“However, even if the fracture had been diagnosed earlier this would not have altered the need for surgery and his ongoing problems are a result of the damage caused by the fall and not by the delay in diagnosis and treatment.

“I am afraid that this is a common situation, where the patient’s own persistence leads to the correct investigations and diagnosis being made.

“But in the absence of any injury resulting from the negligence Mr Biswas accepts he is not entitled to any compensation.”

A spokeswoman for South Tees Hospitals NHS Trust said: “We are sorry that Mr Biswas is not satisfied with the care he received at James Cook.”